Posts Tagged ‘Kansas

The day has finally come folks–the culmination of a season’s worth of college basketball trials and tribulations begin today. There has been A LOT going on in sports lately (the NFL is officially locked out, the Bulls are on fiya, baseball is around the corner, Serena Williams almost died, lacrosse season is in full swing and Sidney Crosby skated for the first time since his concussion to name a few) and we know we have a good Sports Digest in us for later this week. But we won’t delay in what is the most important–March Madness, which, if you haven’t picked up on, kicks off today 😀 I for one, couldn’t be more ecstatic (especially since I don’t work on Friday and can be glued to the madness and importantly, the Syracuse game!)

I usually fare pretty well in my bracket selections and am confident in this group of winners (I would be lying though if I said I wasn’t nervous about that pesky SouthEast bracket.) So below, before tip-off I’m inking my picks in the blogosphere. For those of you that don’t know, I fill out one bracket every year. ONE. and I enter it in every pool, for fun, for money, for beer etc. So believe it or not, there is a method to my madness–and I smell a crazy year of upsets. So here goes:

My theory this year is that the Big East tends to disappoint in the tourney–they always seem to take it out of each other in the Big East tournament and it wouldn’t be March Madness without a few Cinderellas. So before you ask, I’m taking Penn State and Talor Battle over Temple (Let’s Go State!), Utah State over K-State and Richmond over Vandy in the first round Crazy? Maybe. But there’s just something SO annoying about people taking all four one seeds to the Final Four.

Old Dominion (Or Butler, 50/50 on that one) will take out Pitt in the second round. Pitt is a perennial choke artist and I expect them to over look their second round opponent. I’m taking Washington in a shocking second round upset over UNC. I think BYU will have a difficult road but will make it to far, given the fact that I expect these strong lower-seeded teams to make a statement and knock out some power houses.

Final Four:

BYU, Texas, OSU, Kansas

It may be insane to take BYU this far, especially with the loss of a key player, but as I mentioned, the team will have some help from a few Cinderella stories, as well as time to regroup and focus on opponents.

National Champion

Kansas

Yes, OSU is the favorite, but Kansas is steady and hasn’t forgotten the loss to UNI and Faroukmanesh last year. They will enter the tourney with additional focus and drive and are poised to win another championship.

What are your first round upsets? Whose your final four? What is your method of picking brackets?

Lots of stuff happening this week. Before the Vancouver Olympics start on Friday, and monopolize a ton of sports coverage, let’s discuss some of sports biggest stories.

College Basketball

I’m really not sure what to make of this Syracuse team. Don’t get me wrong they look GOOD. Really good. AT 24-1, they are off to the best start in school history. Andy Rautins has become and INCREDIBLE leader for the Orange. It’s been awesome to see this Canadian, second-generation SU player transform from 3-point shooter to such a force to be reckoned with. He’s hardly recognizable playing his heart out on defense, setting up to take charges, being a spot-on free throw shooter and assisting his way through games. Wes Johnson and Kris Joseph regularly put up double digits. Onuaku is playing well. Scoop and Triche are growing into their own. The team is GREAT.

Rautins, sans Faux-Hawk

…they just can’t put together a solid 40 minutes of basketball, and THAT worries me. They were down 12 to Georgetown, down 18 to DePaul and lost at 10 point lead to UConn last night. I have said in the past that if we face a better team, we won’t be able to get away with that. On the flip side though, Syracuse ALWAYS manages to find a way to win. They get scrappy, they play tough, they shut it down at the last second. So it’s hard to vote against them. I’m excited for this team, I want them to be Final Four bound and I think they can do it. It will be very interesting to see SU vs. Georgetown and SU vs. Villanova, they add W’s in those contests and its hard to argue that you’re not looking at a National Championship team.

Also, what’s the deal with UNC? If you would have told me that Hansborough would make such a huge difference (i mean unc is 2-7 in the ACC this year) I’d say you were crazy.

Yes Tyler, UNC is THAT bad

Kansas is also looking really good. Would LOVE to se a KU-SU matchup for the championship. Wall’s starting to crack over at Kentucky … keep your eye on him. I’m already tired of the ESPN story about if Wall and Calipari get along. Calipari is the coach, he should push Wall to be his best and Wall should respect that. End of coach/athlete relationship. As long as that’s going on, who cares if they’re drinking buddies?

To the windowssss....to the (John) Wall!

Side note: Pitino, you tried to the whole NBA thing a few years ago. You almost lost your damn mind. Stick to college hoops. Some colleges just can’t make the transition (*future post alert!*) Oh, and I don’t believe for one second that there’s no truth the rumors that you’re looking to save the FOUR WIN NETS. It’s a trap-job. Don’t do it.

NHL

Hockey, I will miss you these two weeks. I understand the importance of letting your players duke it out for an olympic gold-medal. It will be really cool to see NHL teammates facing off on opposing sides. It does suck that there will be an interruption to league play, especially when it was getting SO good. The Washington Capitals 14-game win streak was JUST ended by the Ottawa senators. (With a league best 89 points though, I don’t think they’re too worried), Mark Cuban is talking about buying the Dallas Stars, and how ’bout those Penguins?! 😉 (Note: for the love of God, please don’t get Cuban involved in the NHL!) This season has delivered really exciting hockey. We’ll anxiously be awaiting your return!

MLB

34 Days ’til Pitcher & Catcher’s report! Holler! 😀

Geovany, my boo

College Lacrosse

Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse is set to get under-way next week. Look for perennial powerhouse and defending 2-time NCAA champion Syracuse to make some serious waves. (Don’t count out Virginia though…they’re tough and SU has to play them on the road this year!)

10-Time NCAA Champions

On the women’s side, you can’t help but feel that Northwestern is going to go for all the marbles again. This year, they are defending their FIVE CONSECUTIVE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS. I don’t even know who can uproot them SU is ranked #4 , but has lost their All-Star and all time BIG EAST scorer, Katie Rowan. Georgetown is always a really strong program as well. (*future post alert–NU is playing Georgetown here in Chi in March!)

The Unstoppable Wildcats!

Who do you like in college basketball? Do you think any team this year can upend Women’s Lacrosse champs Northwestern? What’s your favorite NHL story? Early predictions on World-Series bound teams?